Junior special education major
Jennifer L. Gershowitz will work with the CEC to promote awareness
of gifted and disabled students.
The newly begun Student
Council for Exceptional Children (CEC) is giving students with exceptionalities
attending Appalachian State University, as well as schools in Boone
and the surrounding community, a chance to improve the quality of
their education.
The council is a chapter of the National Council
for Exceptional Children.
Dr. Susan M. Pogoloff, assistant professor in
the department of language, reading and exceptionalities, junior
special education major Jennifer L. Gershowitz and sophomore special
education major Kristen B. Billings are helping to start the CEC
on campus.
Gershowitz
said the CEC aims to promote awareness of and work with students
who have exceptionalities, students with disabilities and gifted
students. She said she feels there is a need for
the CEC at Appalachian because she personally knows students with
exceptionalities who do not receive the services they need.
“If the awareness is there, it can force the school to offer
services to those with exceptionalities,” Gershowitz said.
The main purpose of the organization is to “improve educational
outcomes for individuals with exceptionalities, students with disabilities
and/ or the gifted,” according to the national CEC Web site.
CEC advocates for appropriate governmental policies, sets professional
standards and provides continual professional development, according
to the site.
The council also advocates for newly and historically under-served
individuals with exceptionalities and helps professionals obtain
conditions and resources necessary for effective professional practice,
according to the site.
This purpose is what the student-run organization at Appalachian
will also strive to accomplish both on campus and off campus at
local schools.
In the upcoming school year, the CEC plans to start a peer-buddy
program, become involved with the local Special Olympics and go
to a conference to learn more about what they can do to help students
with exceptionalities.
Members are already working on the peer-buddy program and talking
to other schools that currently have this program in effect to get
ideas on how to start it.
There has already been a high interest in the group, Gershowitz
said. Approximately 26 people attended the first meeting and 38
attended the second meeting.
As a special education major, Gershowitz said she feels being involved
in the CEC will definitely help her in her future career.
“It’s definitely a resource. The CEC has so many programs
and ideas that will teach me what I need to know. There is a developmental
and research section of the club. It will give me a hands-on experience.
I’ll get to work with kids,” Gershowitz said.
